By Muhammad Nur Tijani
Kano, Nov. 9, 2022 (NAN) The 35th edition of the Dala Hard Court Tennis Championship which gets underway on Friday in Kano will gulp about N27 million, the event’s Director, Yusuf Datti, said on Wednesday.
Datti told newsmen on Wednesday in Kano that the budget for this edition of the annual tournament was slightly higher than that of the last edition.
“The budget of this year is over N27 million, higher than the previous ones as a result of the general rise in prices,” he said.
The Tournament Director however said the event’s organisers were happy with the positive response from their major sponsors.
He listed the sponsors to include Aliko Dangote, Fidelity Bank and Wacot Limited, as well as several other corporate organisations and individuals.
Datti disclosed that the organising committee would as usual provide accommodation and feeding to players, as well as national officials of the tennis sport’s governing body.
He also disclosed that the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) had approved the championship having in its main draw the country’s top 20 men and top 10 ladies on the rankings.
Datti, who is the North-West representative on the NTF board, said the competition’s preliminaries would hold from Friday to Sunday.
“The main draw will begin on Monday, and the competition will end on Nov. 19,” he said.
Datti went on to disclose that the Kano State Deputy Governor, Nasiru Gawuna, was expected to be the special guest of honour at the competition’s closing ceremony.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Joseph Imeh and Marylove Edwards won the men’s and ladies singles titles of the 2021 competition respectively
